I love that Hannigram’s the kind of couple who’s:
Hannibal: Seduction, sentiment, I’ll eat you so I can have you
Will: Imagines killing Hannibal, dreams about killing Hannibal, attempts thrice to murder Hannibal
In shows you often see a law enforcer flash his badge and the recipient generally glances at it and nods their head. In s1e1 when Jack shows Hannibal his ID, Hannibal actually carefully studies it. Somehow that’s so chilling knowing who he is.
I’ve seen posts taking the contents of Hannibal’s letter to Will in s3 literally–it is not! Hannibal is not advising Will to stay away from crime scenes for his sake. It’s a taunt and a challenge. He knows Will won’t sit back and do nothing, and he knows this is bad for Will. His intention is to provoke and bully: “Hey Will, I know you need to do this thing that’s very important to you. You want to save these families. I know you have a soft spot for families. I know you won’t deny Jack. And we both know how dangerous this is going to be for you; It’s dark on the other side and madness is waiting :)” It invokes a sense of doom and inevitability. There is only madness waiting for you, Will, and we both know it.
It’s crazy how the first time Hannigram hold hands is over a gun
It’s funny how many things Hannibal willfully suffers through despite his dickiness. Franklyn’s nose-blowing is comedy compared to him forcing Gideon to autocannibalize to punish him for “stealing” his identity. That whole (french accent) craquelure incident in contrast to taking the Mural killer’s kidney and hiding his stelth under the sutures to mimic the killer’s own M.O. Letting Freddie Lounds run her mouth just because she’s his preferred news source. He’s the most dangerous man in the room yet he allows himself to suffer through the things he hates and that’s hilarious.
The audacity of Hannibal to show himself to Chilton in his house knowing that nobody was gonna believe him… Imagine a criminal nonchalantly framing you for their crime right in front of your very eyes and it isn’t worth shit. He swan, you’re frog
Will, tricked into eating sausage made of human lungs: Mmh. Delicious. Thank you.
Dr Lecter., MD; old, wise, and highly accomplished: 😈 you’re welcome, Will.
Will is not socially inept!!! He’s FAR too emotionally intelligent to not understand how social interactions work!!! In fact he is SO emotionally intelligent he has to go to therapy for it!!! What he is is a dick!! He’s like a dog used to the streets; he doesn’t want your food, he wants you to get the fuck out of his sight so he can lay in the sun and chase critters and sleep the day away!! He hates you on first sight and you have to make him love you!! That’s his default mode!! And it is so funny to me when he says “dark” shit in the BAU lab and everyone is horrified, and then he’s like, fuck you all, and goes running to Hannibal because Hannibal doesn’t do the small-talk social convention bullshit and is able to keep up with Will’s intelligence. That’s why Will liked him so much in s1. What is common sense to him is unconventional to ordinary folks, and Will is like a dolphin swimming with goldfish. So he goes to his own dolphin (who turns out to be a grand orca), to have someone who’s on the same IQ frequency.
Hannibal and Will’s first conversation is interesting because Will is defensive. I mean, Will is defensive towards everybody, but this time he finds someone who is as unrelenting as himself. We start with “Do you have trouble with taste?” And “My thoughts are often not tasty.” This can be a lot of things; I personally see it as Will asserting his job (and hiding behind his job i.e. he’s taking away the personal touch of “tasteless” which started this whole thing) and also as a joke because of how it’s worded. Then we get into the meat of it: “Nor mine. No effective barriers.” Hannibal implies he is the same as Will; his thoughts aren’t tasteful (given that he’s a therapist), and those thoughts bleed into other normal, day-to-day thoughts. This can or can’t be true. We don’t know. But for sure he is prodding at Will with a stick, and Will retaliates. “Well, I build forts.” Basically saying, ‘I don’t have that issue because I can segregate my thoughts well'—forts are stone and concrete; hard to conquer, so he’s presenting this image of 'I’ve got a concrete mind and I’m organized’. Hannibal challenges this, “Associations come quickly.” I like to think it’s because Will’s mind works so fluidly and quickly, it’s natural for him to not actively think about things; they just come to him. Hannibal is saying, 'When do you get the time to build forts when the associations are quicker?’ and Will, sore loser, goes, “So do forts.” That is, 'I’m so good at having a mind, I’ve got everything under control and you don’t even know’ which is a pompous lie of course. Finally we reach the breaking point, “No forts in the bone arena of your skull for the things you love.” Which is the equivalent of saying 'Hey I saw you stealing your neighbour’s underwear’ because Hannibal’s got him. And the way he says it too. Agreeing with Will in his analogy of forts being concrete; associating it with the skull (which is, of course, made of bone and is hard and grey like concrete) but saying that is the only thing concrete in your head. No forts. Just rivers of thoughts flowing into the ocean where they all mix without individuality. Will can’t protect his precious things from the violent things he sees, they all mingle together. He looks at clear water and sees red. He sleeps in his own bed next to dead bodies. And it’s like Hannibal has stripped Will of his face and flesh and shone a flashlight right into the back of his skull through his empty eyesockets going “Hm. Interesting.” And that’s why Will gets so pissed and leaves.
Re: last post (yes I know I could’ve reblogged but I don’t like lengthy posts on my feed bc it doesn’t retract, and that one’s already so lengthy!!! if you must know!!) The first conversation scene between Hannibal and Will to me is like the full clip of the meme “Sure, Jan.” If you don’t know, it’s Jan trying to convince her friends? family? that she has a boyfriend (she doesn’t) and blondie goes, “Sure, Jan.” in response to her. To me, blondie is Hannibal and Will is Jan.
tayasui-mono:
@t3acupz technically they are cuddling and they do fall asleep right after this; this is an AU with orphans Will and Hannibal (around 14-15 years old) childhood best friends one could say, getting up to hijinks at their orphanage and being, well, them. Someone should separate them already.
I wrote this listening to aespa’s song Licorice if anybody’s curious~
P.s “four is the number of death” referring to 死 and 四 having the same pronounciation i.e., “death” and “four” respectively in Japanese
Two things. It is absolutely monumental that Will killed Hobbs because of how Will’s mind works. Will is able to put himself in other people’s shoes; he imagines their thoughts processes—and I figure—through juxtapositioning his own life experiences over other people’s. That is how empathy works. I take the thing A that happened to me and apply it to thing B happening to you, and understand where you’re coming from. Will differs from other folks in that he’s extremely intelligent (a genius, really), knowledgeable, and sentimental. He goes into a crime scene and imagines the screams still echoing around the walls. That’s crazy (including medically). He puts himself in another man’s perspective, and extrapolates. AND he’s usually right, because he doesn’t pull shit out of thin air. He’s ALWAYS following the breadcrumbs of evidence.
Yet Will has been able to remain on the other side of the yellow tape so far because he has never killed. Because if he kills, and knew what that would FEEL like, understood how it CHANGES the killer before and after killing, then he gets TOO close to the perpetrator. He will relieve his trauma over and over and over again everytime he does his job. He will feel how it felt to kill all his life until he is dead. It will bleed into his daily life (no effective barriers), and it will ruin him. Every thought he has will be coloured by trauma.
So the fact that Hannibal makes him kill by proxy is monumental. In episode 1, Will, our main character, is already reborn. The second thing: Abigail Hobbs. Will clings to her survival because if she is able to survive Hobbs, then Will can survive Hobbs. They can overcome him together. It is desperate and shows how helpless this entire thing has made him. And then! Hannibal kills Abigail, knowing what her life means to Will. It’s morbidly poetic. Hannibal has changed Will and Will has changed Hannibal, and Hannibal is letting Will know that there is no going back anymore for either of them. All they can do is look forward, and live as the people they’ve changed into. This also connects to the Uffizi gallery scene later on and that’s just chefs kiss.
Watching The Great right now and thinking of a young aristocrat Will Graham traveling to Russia to marry the Emperor Hannibal. He finds out Hannibal’s secret cannibalistic and psychopathic nature and vows to kill him dead, especially for eating his serf friend Beverly. He will take Hannibal’s head, and with it Russia, and plans a coup to become Emperor.
I love that—"You just came here to look at me. Came to get the old scent again. Why don’t you just smell yourself?“—can go 2 ways. Why don’t you just smell yourself? Can imply that Will doesn’t need to bother coming to Hannibal because he has parts of Hannibal within himself. ‘You already have me with you; no forgetting me, just smell yourself and I’m right there.’ OR it can mean 'You’re married, have a kid; a dream family. You came here because you still miss me. Just smell yourself (and it isn’t enough, is it?)’
I like Alana’s complexity. I don’t think she’s ever been very black and white—she’s a psychiatrist; was alright with supporting Will whilst believing he killed those people, shot at Hannibal when he had Jack cornered and their grand plan was spectacularly failing. Her courage felt soft. She had a tender belly up until she was forced to clench and harden it for impact. That’s visually apparent in s3 via wardrobe change. What’s great is that she acts not out of justice but as a precaution. Hannibal is cruel and a monster—and she wants to kill him the same way you try to kill a snake that’s invaded your house. He terrifies her and she needs him to be gone to breathe easy. Then she kills Mason, which isn’t very surprising—and that’s surprising. She always had it in her. It isn’t shocking for her character. She gets her warden moment. This, again, is not out of a need for justice. She is still scared of him. And she guards him so he won’t run away where she can’t see him brandish a knife on her. I love that. Most of us are motivated by our fears, and in contrast to the perverseness of Hannibal and Will, Alana stands out in her naivety and will.
tayasui-mono:
Will, knows it’s not appropriate for him to approach Abigail but wanting to take care of her while maintaining decorum like a decent human being:
Hannibal, gaze yearning, gaslighting: but our daughter, Will. Are we not her fathers, Will? Who knows her better than her gay FATHERS, Will? Do you feel paternal, Will? Do you want to get a marriage license Wil—
Will is a dog-lover yet behaves like a cat and is super picky about people and his personal space. Meanwhile Hannibal behaves like a puppy; warm to everyone, smiling, easy-going and energetic. Extroverted and sociable. It also tracks that once Will the cat trusts you, he is affectionate and wants to be by your side. And Hannibal is just the bloodhound whose attention cannot be swayed once he scents something curious. Once he’s loyal, he is L O Y A L and nothing can take him away from you. He is forever yours only (sinister). Compare that to Will who’s fickle in his actions and is cunning and good at speaking your language.
